Like Past, Like Future
by FullmetalTitanLady69
Summary: In 1907, Ed and Al set off a faulty transmutation and opens a portal into 1935. Adult Ed and Roy get pulled into the portal, replaced in their time by 1907 versions of themselves! Can they, with the help of little Al, open up the portal again on their side, while Huges and their two children try to stay sane dealing with their past selves? (Royed w/ OCs; their kids) HUGHES LIVES AU


**Hey y'all! So, I know that I've been neglecting from updating my other fanfics (Familial Education, oops!), but I've been working on this little crap fest for about two years on and off, not very seriously and I've decided to post the first part right now!**

 **KEEP IN MIND: THIS IS PURELY AND TRULY SELF-INDULGENT AND I DIDN'T PUT MY MOST LOGIC AND EFFORT INTO WRITING IT, BUT I FEEL LIKE ITS A FUN PLOTLINE TO INDULGE WITH MY OWN SPIN**

 **enjoy!**

* * *

Two little boys sat across from each other in a small empty room, holding their respective books.

"I wanna try this transmutation, Brother!" The younger, yet taller, of the two, said stubbornly.

"But Al, we haven't tried any of the transmutations from this book yet, they might be more effective!" The older said back just as defiantly.

"Brother, those are more difficult, we'd get them wrong. Remember what the beginner's book of Alchemy says, Ed. 'A transmutation-gone-wrong, even slightly misdrawn, could cost your life." Al scolded. He crossed his seven- year- old arms defiantly.

"UGH, but Al-" Ed ward stopped mid-pout, which was abnormal for someone as vocal about annoying things as he. "Why don't we mix the circles?" He suggested.

"Brother! Did you not just hear what I sai-"

"No, Al, hear me out. As long as we make sure the circle is balanced, then nothing wrong will happen. We can add some extra material just in case the equivalence is off, okay?" Ed said. His brother looked at him for a good minute before slowly nodding his head in affirmation.

"Okay, but we need to make sure NOTHING goes wrong, okay brother?"

"Promise."

"Great, let's get started!"

* * *

Trisha looked at the closed door warily. Her sons had practically locked themselves in that room for three days. Whatever they were planning, it would either be wonderful or something would go completely wrong.

After being married to an alchemist, Trisha knew this one (very important, may she add) fact about the science.

"Boys, lunch is ready!" She called into the room. She heard Ed and Al respond with variants of, "We'll be right there." Before heading back down to dining room/ kitchen to pour the stew into bowls for her and her sons.

Soon after, the boys plodded down the stairs and sprinted for the table. They dug into the stew hungrily, as only Al had bothered going out of the room for a quick snack and both boys had quite large appetites.

"So what are you two working on in there?" Trisha asked out of curiosity. She had never seen the two children so devoted to one particular circle, and they normally completed one in about one day at most.

The boys looked at each other for a bit before Al slowly answered, "We haven't been able to… to draw the circle right. Ed keeps rubbing the chalk all over the place."

"Hey!" Ed said in response to Al's quite obvious fib.

Trisha chuckled, "Well, I'm excited to see the result of all of this hard work. Ed, try not to smear the chalk as much." She chuckled even more when Ed made an obviously betrayed look that read, 'I thought you were on my side!'

The rest of the lunch went on with the two boys innocently bickering about the periodic table before they both thanked their mom and headed back up to the room. With how obviously they wanted to keep their little project a secret, Trisha was beginning to wonder how much mischief they were getting themselves into.

* * *

"Brother, I think it's complete." Al said and backed away from the circle. Ed nodded, clapping some chalk dust from his hands.

"You wanna try it?" Ed asked, excited. Al nodded.

Both boys put their hand on the circle.

* * *

Trisha was yanked from her tranquil state of thought when she heard two terrified screams from the forsaken room.

The frightened mother took no pause to crash into the room, not expecting what she saw at all.

Poor little Al stood traumatized in a corner staring at an unconscious figure sprawled in the middle of the array. Edward was nowhere to be found.

"Mom!" Al shrieked and bolted into her arms. "Ed was sucked into a portal thingy and this guy fell out of it!" The boy choked out.

"What?!" Trisha yelled in shock.

Al cried harder, "I'm sorry, there was nothing I could do once the transmutation was active, he just went through!"

"Alphonse, you had better tell me there is a way to reverse what you and your brother have done." She said to the boy.

"Probably, but Ed was the one who was able to actually get the circle drawn out, I can't do that kind of alchemy alone!" The small boy yelped. Trisha sighed and hugged the crying Al close to her.

"It's okay Al, I'm sure we can get him back. While you figure out something why don't you help me wake up this man?"

Al nodded and the duo made their way towards the stranger.

He lay on his back with his limbs sprawled out in very uncomfortable directions around him. The man's hair was a golden blonde, and his face bore a striking resemblance to Trisha's lost husband (only this man was far more effeminate than Hohenheim would ever have been). Out of a pocket on his long brown coat lay a shining silver pocket watch that Trisha recognized.

"A state alchemist," She mused to herself. Picking up the metal device, she turned it round in her hand, feeling it's cold weight. The back read 'Fullmetal Alchemist'- most likely his title.

"Look, Mom, he has automail!" Al said, having pushed up the man's sleeve.

"That's not uncommon with State Alchemists, Al. A lot of grown-ups get hurt in those kinds of jobs." Despite what she had just told her son, a little pang of sympathy touched her heart for the unconscious soldier. Whatever connotations came with being a 'dog of the state', the man looked like he couldn't be more than five years older than herself. Seeing how one man could have already been through that much pain in an early stage of adulthood should bring sympathy to even the most hardened of civilians.

Trisha's thoughts were interrupted by a startled noise outside followed by a crash sounded from the front yard.

In full disregard for the freezing December air, Trisha took no time in getting Al to keep an eye on the blonde man and then hurry outside to check on the commotion.

A taller man sat on the ground under their tree tenderly rubbing his head. The eye that wasn't patched over with dark fabric was screwed up in pain and- maybe- frustration. Trisha couldn't help but notice that this man donned most of a military uniform (minus the blue jacket) and that the golden chain of a watch shone from his pocket.

"Oh my goodness!" Trisha exclaimed, walking over to the man to help him up. "Why in heaven's name were you in my tree?"

The man looked up at her confusedly- almost blankly. Trisha continued, "Did you hurt your head?" At a moment of pause and a slow, still confused shake of the head she helped the man to his feet and into her house. All the while his obsidian eye watched her warily. Once he was seated at her dining table, Trisha filled a glass with water and gave it to the man.

He then surprised her with the first words he had yet to utter, "This isn't… real, is it?"

"Pardon me?"

The man's eyebrow knit together, "Well, I don't remember ever leaving my house and I'm suddenly falling out of a tree in the freezing countryside. Certainly, I must be having some sort of hallucination or seizure or something and my mind's making up circumstances."

"I am rather sure that this is real. Although that does-" Trisha stopped short, "Wait, wait. I know what's going on."

The man looked no less confused than he had before Trisha's small epiphany.

"My sons- they opened up a-" She was interrupted by a terrified shriek for upstairs and a loud commotion on the stairs.

Al came barreling straight into Trisha's skirt. He looked close to tears. "Mom the guy woke up really fast and he clapped and then his arm was a sword! I think I startled him." He said very quickly.

The room was quiet for a whole second before the seated man looked straight up at Al. "Was there a bunch of blue light?" At the little boy's nod, the man nodded back, as if he'd expected as much. Then he gave a small (still mildly in a state of utter confusion) smile to Al and said, "You'll have to forgive Ed; he can sometimes be rather unpredictable when he sees a familiar face."

* * *

It was all Molly or Greg could do to not scream until their lungs bled when a gargantuan thunderclap sounded from inside the dining room and crazy, bright purple light danced about for a few seconds.

It took even more control to not run away immediately when the light cleared and two definitely-not-their-parents sat in their places.

One man Molly could swear was exactly like a younger version of her Papa, but he was in full, dusty uniform and splotched with blood and laden with a heavy pistol. The other looked to be a child of about only six or seven. Both figures were completely unconscious on the floor as the two sat in utter bewilderment, food in various stages of travel towards their respective mouths.

"WHAT IN HELL WAS THAT." Greg screamed.

"HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO KNOW? WHO ARE _THEY_?" Molly yelled back.

"OKAY KETTLE, ASK THE DAMN POT."

" _SHUT UP_ I'M CALLING SOMEONE!" Molly sprung out of her chair and practically sprinted to the telephone that hung in the foyer.

"WHO?"

"I DON'T KNOW, BUT THAT'S WHAT YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO DO IN EMERGENCIES."

There was a booklet of contacts next to the phone (for when the parents weren't at home), so Molly tore through them until she found one labeled 'Lt. Colonel Hawkeye- _emergencies only_ ' and immediately dialed that one in. Miss Riza was one of Papa's good friends, but one that the twins saw rarely on account of the fact that the last time they saw her Greg was so frightened that he wet himself (to his defense, no child reacts very well to a gun being loaded and aimed at their father in front of their eyes- no matter how much Riza insisted she would never actually shoot the man).

The phone rang an agonizing four times before the eleven-year-old heard the other line pick it up.

"Lt. Col. Riza Hawkeye here," came a flat female voice on the other end of the line.

"Miss Riza this is Molly. Papa said only to call you in emergencies but this is a REALLY BIG emergency!" Molly said in one loud breath.

"Molly," now Riza's voice was surprised, albeit worried, "What happened? Is someone hurt?"

"I don't know! There was a loud bang and a lot of light and they disappeared and now there're other people and they aren't waking up!" She screeched again.

" _Who_ disappeared? And who's not waking up?"

"My parents! They just *poof* vanished and now there're other people here in their places but they are completely passed out and Greg and I don't know what to do!" Molly all but screamed.

She heard some hurried talking from the other end of the line directed at someone further away, then Riza's voice again spoke to her, "Okay Molly, make sure the people don't leave your house if they wake up. I'm sending someone over to help you out, am I clear?"

"Yesma'am." Molly said before the line went dead.

* * *

As Maes Hughes exited the car and stood before the house of his old friend- now Brigadier General gone missing-, heard the terrified screams crashes from inside and decided that he should have waited a few more weeks to come out of that coma.

Taking no time with formalities, he opened the door loudly, making his presence known. Before he had time to scope the area, an Ishvallan kid, maybe 11 or 12 years old, ran into the room, shotgun in her hand. She took notice of Hughes and saluted, "Miss Riza sent you?"

He nodded.

She let out a relieved sigh, "Oh, good." She turned towards a door at the end of the room and beckoned Hughes to follow her. The next room over was a large dining room, still set up with dinner. The room held a sight he could not have imagined seeing. A young Roy sat, bloody and tied to a chair, glaring and yelling at another Ishvallan kid. A boy who couldn't be more than seven lay unconscious atop the table. The way the table had been cleared around him suggested that he had been moved there.

Young Roy noticed the teen girl with the gun and began yelling at her to return his shotgun, which she ignored outright. She turned to Hughes and gestured to the scene before them, "Now do you see the problem?"

"I think?- OH STOP YELLING." He shouted at young-Roy, who promptly shut up. "Thank you. Now, you two, tell me exactly what happened."

The brother spoke up, "Well Molly, me, and our parents were eating dinner when this hell of a light went up in the corner over there. It was crazy- all purple and electric looking! Once the light went down these guys were in our parents' seats. Army Guy woke up and started screaming something about Ishval, but we took his gun away and Molly tackled him down into the chair, it was pretty epic. That kid hasn't woken up yet, but he's still breathing so I think it's okay."

Hughes thought for a second, then pointed to one end of the table (where young Roy sat struggling), "Your father, a General Mustang, sat there. Am I right?" The two nodded.

He walked over to the bound man and pulled out a chair to sit in, taking a moment to really take in what he was really seeing.

Roy gave him a strange look, "Hughes?"

Maes nodded, "The one and only."

"…You got old."

Hughes barked out in laughter at Roy's bluntness, "On the contrary, Roy, you got young. It's 1935." Roy's eyes widened in disbelief as Hughes got up and went to readdress the kids. "We can catch up later."

"Molly and…" He realized that he hadn't gotten the boy's name.

"Greg."

"Ah, thanks. Molly and Greg. I'm just as confused as you two are, but I believe something happened to switch out your Dad from the past with the one from the present." He spoke in a very quiet tone as not to be heard by the soldier and little boy. "I'm not sure about the child though."

"He looks so weird with both his eyes." Molly commented. Hughes chose to ignore that statement.

He hadn't so much as seen Roy since waking from the coma a week ago. He and his family had just arrived back from a trip of some sort that very morning and he's been working since they arrived back, so their paths had yet to cross.

"Where's your phone?" Hughes asked the kids. Greg pointed towards the hallway.

"There's a number book on the stand as well." Molly added.

"Excellent." Maes headed into the hallway, seeing the wall-mounted phone a short ways down. The phone book was fairly thick, but that wasn't uncommon with high-standing military personnel.

Hughes flipped open the book, quickly noticing that it was alphabetized by last name. He made no haste in finding the 'E' section, but then reached a problem. The Elric brother he was looking for (the one Gracia had confirmed was still in central with a strange look on her face) wasn't listed.

Now, Maes had no problem calling Alphonse, but the boy was all the way in Resembool. If the matter needed immediate investigation, Al would be unreliable, considering the distance.

Hughes had no time to look for an alternative, so he hastily dialed in Al's number and waited for the receiver to be picked up on the other end.

A more mature (and less echoic), but still definitely Al's voice answered, "Hello? This is Alphonse Elric."

"Al! Hey, it's Hughes."

"Hughes! Gracia told me you'd woken up. What do you need?"

"Actually, I was wondering if you could offer your assistance in an assignment I've been given." Hughes said.

Al's voice turned questioning, "Sure, how can I help?"

"Well, I need you to give me your alchemical opinion on a strange disappearance."

"Who disappeared?" Al asked.

"If I'm not mistaken, Mustang and another individual I've yet to identify with our witnesses. They were eating dinner at the time."

There was a pause at the end of the line, and then Al said, "You know, it'd be a lot easier to just ask Ed to help you."

Hughes replied, "Roy doesn't have your brother's number in his phone book."

Silence again. And then a lot of chuckling from the other end of the line. And then, "Oh my God, wait. I'm getting on the next train to Central. Expect me within the hour." Then Al hung up.

Maes hung up and went to where the two Ishvallans were keeping an eye on the others, "You two, watch these guys. I'll come back in a bit with help."

They nodded, and Maes headed out to the train station to wait.

* * *

When Ed woke up, the last thing he expected to see was a smaller version of his brother.

He immediately thought _homunculus_ and made his automail into a blade, to which the little Al screamed and bolted from the room (which looked a ton like a room in his old house in Resembool).

He then heard a muted male voice and steps heading towards the door. He instinctively got into a battle position facing the door, ready to face any assailant who may be sorry enough to cross his path.

From around the corner edged the one group of people he didn't think he could ever see in the same room together. Roy was led by Ed's mother (or a homunculus) who was carrying a near-to-tears little Al.

The deeper into the room they got, Trisha and Al stepped further back.

Roy was about to open his mouth to speak, but Ed spoke before him, "Give me solid proof that you aren't a homunculus."

The taller of the two men stopped for a second, then smiled, "I haven't died yet, how could I have been brought back to life? Besides, nobody but your short ass would probably even try."

Ed sighed and smiled back, lowering his blade arm, "I would say you've known me long enough not to call me short, but that's never stopped you, has it?"

Roy laughed, "You know me too well."

Ed gave him an amused look before scanning the room, "Where are we? What about you guys? How can you prove you aren't homunculi?"

Ed gave a weary look to Trisha and little Al.

Trisha spoke up, "I really don't know what you're talking about, but I'm not the one who just crashed into someone's study so I'd appreciate it if you'd not insult us."

Roy added, "We're in Resembool, Ed. Look out the window, there's Winry's shop."

Ed shook his head, "No, then we'd be standing in my old house, and it's been gone since 1911."

"It's 1906." Little Al piped up.

Ed sputtered, "No, it's 1935!" Al cowered down into Trisha's shoulder at Ed's angry tone.

"Who do you think you're trying to fool? It really isn't funny! Tell me where my other son went and be on your way." Trisha yelled angrily, taking a few steps towards the two men.

Roy looked as if he'd had an epiphany, "Did your other child just disappear?"

"Yes, as they cast their transmutation. I was about to tell you that downstairs."

Roy turned towards Ed, who was becoming more and more shocked by the second as he came to the same conclusion. "Equivalence."

* * *

 **Yo! Thanks for reading the first installment of my for-fun-fic! Please review, I LOVE hearing feedback, positive or negative!  
**


End file.
